Ahmet Tosun

In Ankara this week I closely followed the defense and questioning of Ahmet Tosun, one of the most critical suspects in the Akıncı Air Base case trial.

When staff pilot captains İlker Hazinedar and Oğuz Alper Emrah were assigned on a flight mission, it was nearly midnight. They did not know the flight routes and targets. Akıncı Air Base Operations Commander Staff Col. Ahmet Özçetin had said, "You take off, the information will come while you're in the air."

When staff pilot captains İlker Hazinedar and Oğuz Alper Emrah were assigned on a flight mission, it was nearly midnight. They did not know the flight routes and targets. Akıncı Air Base Operations Commander Staff Col. Ahmet Özçetin had said, "You take off, the information will come while you're in the air."

On the night of the coup attempt of July 15, 2016, an order from the Akıncı Base was given to the quartet F-16 team that had recently taken off, according to radio records of the 141st fleet at 10:15 p.m.  

"If you detect a move, shoot," went the order.

Hasan Hüsnü Balıkçı who flies with the call sign "ASLAN 5" says, "We are going towards the target and dropping [the bomb]."

Mustafa Azimetli who flies with the call sign "ASLAN 1" says, "Okay," and adds, "May God help you…"

The wish "May God help you" is not communicated in the skies of Northern Iraq in Kandil, but the airspace above the capital Ankara's city center. 

The soldiers who participated in the July 15, 2016, failed coup attempt were ordered to shoot at will, according to an indictment prepared by Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor's Office regarding coup activities at the Akıncı Air Base. 

The 4,658-page indictment, which includes a total of 481 suspects, was sent to court on March 31. 

The pilot who hit the Presidential Palace in Ankara during the July 15 failed coup has said that he hit the building on purpose as part of the coup, making him one of the first soldiers to admit that he acted knowing that there was a putsch against the country's elected government.